I know, half of you are saying, “carbu-what?”, and my other reader already did it. Having grown up with fuel-injected cars since about 1989, I myself was not sure what to do with the carburetor, although I knew rebuilding it could help my rough-running situation. My Lancia Beta had sat in a barn or outside for several years, and from working on an old Packard roadster at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum I knew that fuel could turn into a nasty shellack-y mess in cars that are stored long-term without proper prep. To get some basic understanding of how a carb works, I found a page at howstuffworks.com for basics. While they talk about a chainsaw carb, the basic concepts still apply.
Archive for the ‘Repairs’ Category
Rebuild your carburetor
May 20, 2009
Smokey Says, Only You Can Stop Fluid Leaks!
May 16, 2009While this is not a terribly sexy thing to fix, it’s definitely one of the things people like me tend to put off while focusing on cooler things like rebuilding an engine, or redoing the suspension. However, this is something pretty inexpensive you can do in the space of an afternoon. Does your old car still have those fuel hoses with the cloth on the outside? And the cloth is faded to a greyish-brown shade? You might want to think about taking on this easy and cheap repair. Likewise, have you had a chance to take a look at the flexible brake and clutch lines on your rusty-but-trusty car? I’m ashamed to admit mine were pretty cracked up, and I only did something about it after years of owning both my Alfas.
One tip to avoid spillage – use a clamp wrench when disconnecting your fuel lines. Once you’ve disconnected, poke them into a small container, like a quart oil bottle, then remove the clamp and let the excess fuel drain out. As far as the brake lines are concerned, that’s a little harder… I put down a pan underneath, and really, not that much fluid comes out. At any rate, this is a good time to flush your brake fluid, which in all likelihood needs to be replaced anyway. I’d like to say I have some pics I can share of this, but I’m not finding any pictures I took of the embarrassing shape my brake lines were in. I guess I was wise enough to erase the evidence!
Alfetta GT rear suspension
May 12, 2009Having read the title, you’re probably thinking, a whole suspension rebuild & upgrade on the cheap? Well, yeah, and here’s how it works out. This is actually a fairly straightforward operation if you’re persistent in spending the time… I also did a few extra things like cleaning and repainting to make it look prettier, but you can skip that if you’re feeling the pinch of cost and/or time. The cost of new bushings was about $100, lightly used shocks were about $20 on eBay (score!), GTV6 rear springs were about $60, and I think I paid my mechanic about $100 to replace the big bushing at the front of the deDion triangle. So counting that up, it’s about $300 including bits & pieces (I chose to replace all the bolts holding on the half shafts since I needed to disconnect them to drop the deDion). You could, of course, drop it to $200ish by replacing the bushing yourself.
As I mentioned, the procedure is pretty simple. Be ready to sacrifice some blood or at least some skin, but it’s basically a matter of unbolting everything to get your suspension bits out, replacing the bushings and then putting them back in. Oversimplify? Me? While I was in there, I also replaced my transaxle mounts, which cured a driveshaft vibration and some clunking. One of the mounts had completely fallen apart! Finally, I replaced my clutch and brake lines – it’s amazing how something so cracked up after 30 years can still work.
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Rusty But Trusty 